Expert: Bennie719 - 5/6/2008

Question
I was involved in an auto "accident" where I was turning from the main road onto a side road.  I was turning left onto the side road and there was another vehicle turning left onto the main road from the side road and had a "Stop" sign (I had no traffic signals or signs).  The other driver pulled out before I was past them and hit my back wheel and fender (T-bone style).  I drive a Wrangler and had my doors off at the time which also means my side mirrors were not on the vehicle.  A police report was taken and the other driver was issued a citation for failing to yield right of way and the officer stated that he was at fault.  I called his insurance company and filed a claim.  I was told that my claim would be denied because "had I had my side view mirrors on the vehicle I could have prevented the accident".  I live in NC and if the insurance company says that you are at least 1% liable for the accident, you have to file a claim with your own insurance company and the other person is not responsible.  I am wondering if there is a way to appeal this decision and if this is a valid reason to deny my claim.  Thanks.

Answer
Hi Nate,
I'm sorry to learn of your predicament.
There are two types of negligence laws governing accidents and each state only uses one of the two.

The contributory negligence law is now only used by a few states.  Under this law, you have no legal right of recovery from the other party if you can be found to be between 1% and 49.9% at fault.

The majority of the states use the comparative negligence law.  Under this law, a degree of fault is established against each driver (in cases when it's not clear that one party was 100% at fault) and each party is entitled to collect that percentage of damage and injury from the other, whether it be 90/10 or 50/50.

I have been a licensed insurance broker in California since 1964.
My state was contributory negligence until the mid 1970's when it switched to comparative negligence law, so I have worked under both systems.

If you carry collision coverage, you can have your own company repair your vehicle, less your deductible.

The only way that you are going to be able to collect from the other party is to prove that he was 50.1% at fault.  Although I personaly can see no way that having side mirrors would have helped you avoid being hit although you were probably in violation of North Carolina law by failure to have a mirror on the drivers side, I seriously doubt that you can convince a judge to assign 50.1% fault to the other driver.

If you decide to pursue the matter, then file a claim in small claims court against the other driver.  Attorneys are allowed in small claims court in North Carolina and the opposing insurance company will provide free attorney representation to their insured.
You will need to hire an attorney to represent you.

This will be an expensive undertaking on your part with your chances of winning being slim to none.  Although justice is not served, I suggest that you drop the matter and move on.

Your energies would be better spent lobbying your state representative and state senator to change the law to comparative negligence.

I hope you found this information to be helpful.
Your feedback by rating my answer will be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area